While Massachusetts waits for its Supreme Judicial Court to decide whether the state Energy Facilities Siting Board overstepped in granting a comprehensive permit to the Cape Wind project, let’s visit a couple of other states.

Maine went big for alternative energy June 8, approving a $26.5 million bond package that the Bangor Daily News explains will fund development of offshore wind, funnel $15.5 million toward energy improvements in the state’s higher education system and provide $11 million for R & D to build what would be the first deep-water site in the U.S. to test floating wind turbines. The News said the measure passed by a comfortable margin.

Down Rhode Island way, the Providence Journal was reporting that “Latest wind-farm bill hits headwinds.” That state’s Public Utilities Commission turned down a power contract for offshore wind with Deepwater Wind, prompting filing of bills to cut the PUC out of future reviews. Then the agency’s role was restored, but in such a restricted manner that critics said it would compel approval.

The Journal quoted Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch as saying PUC would become “Deepwater’s rubber stamp for a pre-rigged outcome that will be disastrous for Rhode Island taxpayers and businesses, costing them nearly $400 million above the market price of electricity over the next two decades.”

Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are among 10 states that have signed a memorandum of understanding with U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to create an Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Consortium to “promote the efficient, orderly, and responsible development of wind resources on the Outer Continental Shelf.” An Interior press statement noted the creation of a regional renewable energy office in Virginia “so as to be convenient to all states.” The only state in the group that’s south of Virginia is North Carolina.